Automated external defibrillators (AEDs) are often used by such emergency response personnel as police and paramedics. Consequently, AEDs are often stored in automobiles and ambulances in places where they are often jolted during transport. Moreover, in responding to emergencies, AEDs must often be quickly carried from vehicles to the site of a patient in extreme need of defibrillation. In being carried and utilized, AEDs may be dropped or knocked off raised horizontal surfaces. However, in order to function properly, the inner circuitry of AEDs must not sustain damage. Thus, there is a need to provide AEDs with the ability to sustain the jarring, dropping and other abuse inherent in an emergency situation.
One method of mounting circuit boards in AEDs is with screws. In this manner, the circuit boards are fixedly screwed to mounting posts inside the AED housing. However, when screws are utilized to fix circuit boards, assembly time, hence manufacturing cost, is increased. Moreover, during drop tests with circuit boards fixedly screwed into an AED housing, impact forces may approach 100-500 Gs when the AED strikes the floor. When screws are utilized to affix circuit boards to AED housings, the circuit boards are not cushioned against damages resulting from these forces.
Exposure of a defibrillator circuit board to electromagnetic interference during recharge, testing and defibrillation can result in malfunction, misdiagnosis of the readiness state of the device for defibrillation and a failure of the device to function during recharge or defibrillation. One alternative is to manufacture the AED housing with a metallic lining. However, this practice adds to the expense of the product.
It would be desirable to provide a cushioned mounting which protects circuit boards from damage, provides an efficient and low cost method of affixing circuit boards to AED housing during manufacture, and which provides for shielding from electromagnetic interference.